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Erin Grand
I have made visualizations viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, sped up query times for 25 terabytes of data by an average of 4,800 times, and built packages for R that let you do magic.
Currently searching for a position that allows me to build tools leveraging a combination of visualization, machine learning, and software engineering to help people explore and understand their data in new and useful ways.
Education
M.S., Data Science
Columbia University
New York, NY
2016 - 2014
M.S. Astronomy
Unvisity of Maryland
College Park, MD
2014 - 2011
B.S., Astronomy and Physics
Unvisity of Maryland
College Park, MD
2011 - 2007
Research Experience
Research Assistant
Unvisity of Maryland
College Park, MD
2014 - 2011
- Researched the formation mechanisms of molecular pillars, such as the Eagle nebula’s Pillars of Creation
- Compared CARMA observations of high density gas to model predictions. Created IDL and Python scripts to process, analyze, and display the results
Summer Intern
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD
2011 - 2011
- Performed analysis on raw data to produce a three-colored ultraviolet image of the Andromeda galaxy
- Image has been featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day twice since publication
Summer Intern
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD
2010 - 2010
- Developed bash shell scripts to manually set the aspect correction of images from the Swift satellite allowing the data to used in further research
Industry Experience
I have worked in a variety of roles ranging from journalist to software engineer to data scientist. I like collaborative environments where I can learn from my peers.
Data Scientist
Uncommon Schools
New York, NY
Current - 2016
- Produced high-quality analytics work around student, and teacher data
- Taught coworkers basics and best practices of R coding
- Set up automatic connections to databases to allow for automatic nightly refreshes of data analyses
Data Scientist
Crisis Text Line
New York, NY
2016 - 2015
- Built and shipped a new volunteer application that was used by 7600 applicants. Increased the completion rate from 40% to 90%
- Identified trainee drop off times for trainers. Produced cohort reports of training metrics. Identified key differences among cohorts to provide trainers with new solutions
- Identified counselor churn as the largest organizational priority, and set up tracking, reporting, and analysis of key metrics. Presented results to a staff of 35
Data Librarian / Software Engineer
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD
2016 - 2014
- Reformatted science data images to be compatible with WMS tile servers. Products are used as part of the educational Science on a Sphere and NASA Earth and Space Observatory programs.
- Designed traveling Hubble Space Telescope exhibits’ new iPad kiosks using HTML, JavaScript, and KioskPro
Teaching Experience
I am passionate about education. I believe that no topic is too complex if the teacher is empathetic and willing to think about new methods of approaching task.
Teacher’s Assistant
Unvisity of Maryland
College Park, MD
N/A
- Developed discussion activities, motivated group discussion and peer learn- ing, incorporated technology resources such as educational online videos, and graded assignments
- Received award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching in the I-Series Courses
Selected Data Science Writing
I regularly blog about data science and visualization on my blog LiveFreeOrDichotomize.
Selected Press (About)
Memberships
R-Ladies NYC board member
R-Ladies NYC
N/A
Current - 2019
Hobbies:
Royal Scottish Country Dancing, Singing, Board Games